Most Christian CEOs Say They're Fine. Half of Them Are Hardest on Themselves.

Ask a Christian CEO how they're doing and you'll probably hear "good." The numbers mostly back that up. In a new Barna study of 356 CEOs, produced with C12 Business Forums, 91% are satisfied with how they prioritize family and 89% with their spiritual health.

Then you get to page 12. More than half of these same leaders (56%) say they always or often feel critical of themselves at work. That's 21 points higher than the average American worker. About one in five rarely or never feels connected. Their burnout and loneliness run about level with the employees they lead.

So the picture is a leader who looks steady from across the room and is harder on themselves than almost anyone in the building. The report, Faith-Forward CEOs, has a lot to say about why, and about what changes when faith is actually practiced instead of just claimed. Here's what we think every marketplace leader should take from it.

First, who was asked

Barna surveyed 356 CEOs in early 2025 and compared them with 2,146 employed U.S. adults. The average CEO was 48. Three in four identify as Christian, and 89% either call themselves Christian or say faith is very important to them. Barna calls that group "Faith-Forward." A smaller group, practicing Christians (people who attend church at least monthly and strongly agree their faith is very important), gets its own section, and that's where the most interesting findings are.

The motivation is people

Ask these CEOs what drives them and recognition barely registers. The top answers are having a positive impact on others (82%), building a healthy company culture (79%), upholding ethical standards (77%) and fulfilling their purpose (76%). Gaining respect from others came in last at 40%.

Here's the part that stung a little. Three in four have a faith background, yet only 51% say their faith motivates them as a leader. A quarter say it isn't a factor at all. Barna's guess is that many CEOs feel they're supposed to leave faith at the door.

That gap is the one Cities Project Global exists to close. Our mission is to awaken people to the sacred nature of their work, equip them to live an integrated life, and send them out to renew workplaces and communities for the glory of God. A faith that stays in the parking lot can't do any of that.

What CEOs feel responsible for, and what they don't

CEOs own the big things. 80% feel highly responsible for vision and mission, 73% for workplace culture, 71% for productivity. Only 37% feel highly responsible for their employees' work-life balance, the lowest item on the list.

Oddly, 28% name employee well-being as a major source of stress. So it weighs on them even though they don't count it as theirs. The biggest stressor overall was maximizing profit (38%), followed by their own work-life balance (32%) and meeting stakeholder expectations (30%). Upholding their faith caused stress for just 14%.

On how culture gets built, the answers lean on character: strong leadership (44%), ethics and integrity (42%), recognition (41%), and clear values and mission (41%). A winning business model got 17%.

Where CEOs and their teams see things differently

Leaders and workers agree on the people-focused changes of recent years. Both like the focus on well-being, engagement and development. They split on a few others:

• DEI initiatives. About a third of both groups view them very positively, but 32% of CEOs view them negatively against 12% of workers.
• Unlimited PTO. 38% of CEOs see it as a negative change, compared with 22% of workers.
• AI. CEOs are warmer (30% very positive vs. 20% of workers). Workers are more likely to see it as negative (18% vs. 11%), likely out of concern for their jobs.

Christian CEOs are also more likely to think society expects too much of the workplace on social issues (49%, compared with 28% of non-Christian CEOs). These are the places where a leader should listen harder before deciding.

Six ways practicing Christian CEOs lead differently

This is the heart of the report. When Barna isolated CEOs who practice their faith, a distinct kind of leader showed up.

1. Their values come from their faith. 60% name religious faith as a top leadership value, compared with 23% of nonpracticing Christians and 3% of non-Christians. They also pick growth, humility, love and courage more often.

2. They're driven by impact more than profit. 90% are highly motivated by a positive impact on others (75% for non-Christian CEOs). Non-Christian CEOs are more motivated by building wealth (67% vs. 46%). Profit still matters to practicing Christians; 59% call it highly motivating. It just isn't first.

3. They're steadier. They report more purpose (88% vs. 74%), more hope (87% vs. 73%), and more respect from their organizations. They're less burned out and lonely, and less self-critical (53% vs. 67%). Remember the 56% from the top of this article? Practiced faith is where that number starts to move.

4. They let someone mentor them. 82% have been mentored by another executive, and 41% are being mentored right now. For nonpracticing Christians the current figure is 21%, and for non-Christians 27%.

5. They build culture on mission. 53% say clear values and mission are critical to a healthy culture, against roughly a third of everyone else.

6. They tend their souls on purpose. 87% make time for spiritual and emotional health at least weekly, and 41% do it daily. Among the other groups, about three in five manage weekly.

Across the whole sample, CEOs who practice soul care daily were significantly more satisfied with their mental, financial, physical and spiritual well-being. And it grows with age: 43% of Boomer and Elder CEOs prioritize it daily, compared with 24% of Gen Z and Millennial CEOs. A third of younger CEOs do it less than twice a month.

What to do with this

Barna and C12 close with recommendations. Here they are, put plainly:

1. Build soul care into your calendar. Especially if you're younger. The data links daily practice to better well-being across the board.
2. Get a mentor, and be one. Practicing Christian CEOs already lean this way. Younger leaders need older ones who will talk honestly about pressure and success.
3. Connect your faith to your metrics. Work out how humility, service and gratitude show up in decisions, culture and how your board evaluates you.
4. Audit your values. Check whether what's on the wall matches what your people experience.
5. Treat your team's well-being as yours. Don't hand it off to HR. Approach the hard topics, where you and your staff disagree, with curiosity and openness.

Where Cities Project Global fits

Almost every recommendation in this report needs other people. A mentor, a peer who'll tell you the truth, someone who notices you're running on empty. Those are hard to find when you're the person everyone else reports to.

That's why we built the Leadership Circle. It's a cohort of marketplace leaders in your city who meet over time to work out what it means for faith to shape their work, their culture and their decisions. If your team is smaller, VantagePoint does the same in a small-group setting with friends from your community.

The report found that 51% of faith-forward CEOs are motivated by their faith. We'd like to see that number climb. If you're one of the other 49%, or one of the 56% who are hardest on themselves, come find people who will walk with you.

Source: Barna Group in partnership with C12 Business Forums, "Faith-Forward CEOs: Research and Insights on Executives Who Lead Differently" (2025).